Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an opportunity to stand before this House and to support a motion that will deliver real tangible benefits to my electorate of Swan. When I was elected, I made a commitment to make a real and tangible difference to my community and my constituents. My team and I are passionate about supporting the electorate, and my electorate represents Australia. It is a microcosm of the nation. It has diverse interests, hardworking families and people aspiring to get ahead in life, to provide stability and security for their households and their families, to provide a good education for their children, and to make sure that they get health care when they need it. Their priorities are my priorities, and my priorities are the priorities of the Albanese Labor government—that is, to make sure that people have more support and access to services when they need it.

I was very proud to hear that WA will be the first state to have fully funded schools by 2026. It's inspiring to be a part of a government with this vision and a government that has the courage to implement it. We are also expanding bulk-billing and opening urgent-care clinics. When you need a doctor, you should need only your Medicare card, not your credit card. It's all part of the theme to create a better, fairer Australia. That's exactly what the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Bill 2024 is a part of—creating this vision. We are fully aware of the pressures that many Australians have been facing. Cost-of-living pressures have placed burdens on many people and their families. They have placed a heavy burden on middle Australia. We know this and, unlike the opposition, we do not ignore the facts; we do not ignore the feedback we have been receiving from the community. We face it head on, we are listening, we are hearing you and we are acting, and that's the job of government.

Next week in my electorate, I will be hosting a one-stop shop for people that are doing it tough right now. We'll be holding a helping households hub to help people with their household finances. We'll be bringing federal, state and local government together to inform people of the policies that are relevant to them, and bringing in external service agencies that can provide advice and support when they need it. This is an idea that—I'm going to say it—we've stolen from the member for Reid, because the truth is that good ideas should be spread throughout the nation. We will be looking at legal advice, financial counselling and support, and a navigating Services Australia session. Within a day, we've had nearly two dozen registrations, and I hope that we get even more because I want to reach as many people as possible.

We are not consumed by individual crusades against the vulnerable, unlike what we saw under the previous government. We only need to look back at robodebt to understand what the Liberal Party thinks about people doing it tough. Instead of reaching out and saying, 'Okay, what can we do; what can we change,' they punished people for being vulnerable. You can't get more of a polar opposite. The Liberals put the blindfold on and attacked, whereas we as Labor turned up the volume, we listened and we responded.

The opposition doesn't like our proposed tax changes. What does the opposition want? Do they want wages to be lower? Do they want inflation to be higher? The answer appears to be yes. They want tax cuts to benefit the few, not the many, and they're at odds with themselves. One minute, the member for Hume is calling Labor's tax cuts a form of Marxism, and then, on the same day, he turns around and says that he'll be supporting them.

This isn't about politics; it's about people. And that's why I stand here wholeheartedly supporting these tax cut measures—

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